


Unworthy Ending

by SoftButchCassidy



Series: Aurora and Mikris (and friends!) [17]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, This was actually supposed to be posted before season of arrivals oops, remember when rasputin blew up the almighty? that was cool
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:20:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27596060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoftButchCassidy/pseuds/SoftButchCassidy
Summary: “You sure you wanna be here? If Rasputin doesn’t shoot that thing down…”Saffron appeared beside Aurora’s head. “I’ve done the calculations. If Rasputin can’t stop it, there will be enough time for me to transmat both of them to Aurora’s Skiff and get far enough away.”Drifter winced. “Why be here at all?”“To see the Great Machine,” Mikris explained. “To feel its Light. Tevis… deserves it, most of all. To see what we could be part of.”Drifter softened. “I hope so, sister. Let’s go, careful.”
Relationships: Guardian/Original Fallen | Eliksni Character(s)
Series: Aurora and Mikris (and friends!) [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1496270
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	Unworthy Ending

**Author's Note:**

> uwu

“Careful,” Drifter hissed. His arm shot out to catch Mikris’ as she wobbled for balance. “You good?”

She chirped softly in answer to both his question and Aurora’s worried look. 

The three kept moving, creeping along the wall, until Drifter held up his hand. After a furtive look around, he jumped down and caught a crooked piece of rebar. He braced himself and with a grunt of exertion kicked his boot into a ventilation grate. It rattled as it crumpled inwards. Drifter gave a thumbs-up before crawling inside. 

“Okay, yep, this is it,” his voice said over the comms. “Man, you’d think between you and Saladin, they’d be fine with y’all comin’ in, but no, ‘course not, gotta make this a pain for all of us--”

“Drifter,” Aurora said impatiently. “Is it clear?”

“Yeah, you’re good.”

Mikris clicked her mandibles and tightened Tevis’ harness. Aurora was still anxious watching her skitter her way down the wall, despite knowing that it was as natural to Mikris as walking on a horizontal surface. Mikris maneuvered into the ventilation shaft and vanished.

Aurora followed Drifter’s method, stepping off the wall into free fall. She kicked off a pocket of air and snagged the rebar. 

She slipped through and landed with a soft thud inside the Annex.

Mikris bundled her cloak around her. Even with the armor to conceal her secondary arms and other obvious Eliksni traits, she still was a bit conspicuous. 

Drifter started to dust off his coat when the entire earth trembled.

“What the hell was…” Drifter started.

Aurora felt a cold trickle of fear. “Warsats. It has to be.” She keyed her comm. “Ana? Xen?”

There was a hiss of static.

Mikris hushed Tevis softly as they started to squirm against her chest. 

“-rora?”

“Xen!”

“Hard t-- you. Lots of w-- going off. --t’s loud!”

“Warsats?”

“Yeah!”

“Will it work?”

Another rumble, and a crackle through the comms. 

“It’s gotta,” Atlas said. “I’m ch-- and it seems accur-- but signal’s bad.”

Aurora took a breath and looked to her wife and her best friend. “Phaloriks, Saladin, Mithrax, and Zavrik are making sure the Iron Temple is safe and preparing for evac, just in case.”

Drifter nodded. “You sure you wanna be here? If Rasputin doesn’t shoot that thing down…”

Saffron appeared beside Aurora’s head. “I’ve done the calculations. If Rasputin can’t stop it, there will be enough time for me to transmat both of them to Aurora’s Skiff and get far enough away.”

Drifter winced. “Why be here at all?”

“To see the Great Machine,” Mikris explained. “To feel its Light. Tevis… deserves it, most of all. To see what we could be part of.”

Drifter softened. “I hope so, sister. Let’s go, careful.”

They moved through the Annex. It was barren, more than usual. Drifter went up the stairs first, hand resting on his hand cannon but not ready to draw. 

He peered into the bazaar and then nodded. “Quiet,” he whispered. “Head ‘round the shop by NM, there’s a wall with a flower bed. Careful on that, but then you can make your way to that balcony. No one should be able to see you unless they look careful, and ain’t nobody lookin’ at anything but that thing in the sky.”

Aurora steeled herself. “Okay. Thank you, Drifter.”

He shared a crooked smile and stepped back. “Good luck. I’ll see you around. I’m bouncin’ on back to the Derelict for a while… in case.”

Aurora took Mikris’ hand. “Stay safe.”

“You too. Eyes up, Guardian.”

They parted ways. 

The bazaar wasn’t crowded, not like usual. Anyone left was at the railings, staring up at the sky. Aurora and Mikris crept across the stone. Even Tevis stayed quiet, seemingly sensing their parents’ fear.

It was easy enough to follow Drifter’s instructions. Aurora breathed in relief as she and Mikris stood safe on the balcony of a vacant apartment. Her relief ebbed into cold fear as she looked up.

Mikris gasped in horror. 

“That’s… that’s so much closer than I thought it would be,” Aurora whispered. 

Shaking claws grasped for her hand. Aurora pulled Mikris and Tevis into her arms, trembling, unable to tear her eyes from the monolith blocking out the sun.

“Tevis,” Mikris said softly. “Little one… do you feel the Light? Can you feel the Great Machine? We’ve… I’ve never been so near to it…”

Aurora cooed to the little Eliksni. “Hi, baby, here. Here, can I hold your hand? That’s it, sweetheart.” She held Tevis’ little clawed hand in two of hers. “The Great Machine chose you, too. Just like it chose me and your mama and your aunt.”

Tevis blinked their clouded eyes and chirped. 

Aurora squeezed her optics closed and focused. 

She let the rush of energy flow through her, the pure rush she felt every time she breathed her first breath again, when she had pulled the Light into her body from the broken shard years ago.

Tevis gasped out and grabbed her hand tighter. 

The earth shook.

“Aurora,” Mikris said urgently. 

Aurora looked up. 

She didn’t see it at first. 

But then, she did.

Shining specks of red in the sky. 

“Warsats,” she murmured. “C’mon, Rasputin. Don’t betray us now, please.”

All they could do was wait.

The seconds, then minutes ticked by. Aurora watched the pinpricks of light turn into streaks of red, trails of Warmind energy. She held her wife and their child as Rasputin bombarded the massive spacecraft, as Warsats exploded against its shields. Saffron nestled into Tevis’ arms, her eye trained on the Almighty and her worry mounting.

“I don’t know if he can do it,” Saffron whispered.

It had been an hour. Maybe more. The shadow of the Almighty loomed.

Aurora held them closer and took a deep breath. “Saff,” she croaked. “Get ready for transmat.”

Mikris whined softly and looked desperately at the Traveler.

“Preparing for transmat,” Saffron said, voice shaking.

Aurora froze. 

A celebratory howl from her comm made her jump with a yelp. 

“Look!” Mikris thrust out a hand. 

She felt the energy permeating the entire atmosphere. It wasn’t Light or Dark. It was electric and it was metal and it was destruction. 

A low boom stopped every other sound. 

From the inside out, the Almighty burst into a blinding fire. Aurora squinted, jolted back to the moment she had watched the Traveler rip Ghaul into nothingness.

“He did it,” Mikris murmured. “By the Light… he did it.”

The ground rumbled, nearly toppling them over. Aurora heard distance screams, gunshots.

“Are you kidding?” Aurora huffed. “Are those idiots seriously wasting ammo like that?”

Mikris chittered. “Firing in celebration?” She looked elated.

Aurora grabbed her tighter to keep them upright. “It’s not over yet!”

The explosions of the Almighty’s generators blasted out, something felt more than heard. The blinding burst began to fade, and Aurora watched the broken, flaming skeleton of the spacecraft dropping.

Fast.

Without needing to exchange a word Aurora and Mikris bolted for the banister. Mikris yanked her arms free of her armor and the two climbed and leapt upwards to the roof. 

“Stay low, stay low!” Aurora reached over.

They watched it spin, burning, falling.

The mountains. Aurora felt weak with relief.

Debris flung asunder from the wreckage rained down, cutting the feeling short.

The screaming echoed in her mind, dragging her back to the invasion, her helplessness, her city burning and dying--

Mikris grabbed her and pulled her down to the ground. 

Like watching a whale breach and plunge back into the sea, Aurora watched the Almighty fall into the mountains. The world trembled, rattled.

With a final blast of blinding light the remains exploded one last time. Aurora clasped her hands over Tevis’ head even as her own auditory receptors rang with shrill deafness.

If Mikris hadn’t tugged them both to their knees, they would fall off the building, she realized in a daze as she watched the shockwave rolling across the earth.

She braced herself through the ringing.

The blast didn’t come. 

She blinked open her eyes to see the world washed in violet.

Mikris gasped.

“Osiris told me about this,” Saint-14 said with a dry chuckle. “A warning I am grateful for.”

Aurora’s vocal modulator hitched. She lunged forward and pulled Mikris in, buried her face into her throat, held Tevis to her chest. “We’re alive, we’re alive,” she crackled out.

Saint lowered his hands, letting his Ward of Dawn fade away as the dust and debris settled. “Are you okay?” he asked. He reached down.

Aurora nodded and took his hand. Before she could reach for Mikris, Saint was already pulling the Ambassador to her feet, too. Mikris stood a few inches taller than him, wide eyed and shaken.

“Thank you, Saint,” Aurora said. She reset her modulator to ease her rampant static. “You… you saved us.”

Saint laughed. “Well, it was only fair to return the favor! Although… you would have been fine. But…”

Aurora took Mikris’s hands in hers and cupped Tevis’ face with a secondary. Tevis chirped and nuzzled into her palm.

“Perhaps,” Saint said, softer, “I have been wrong. The world is different. The people are different. Osiris warned me that you and your love would be in danger. I don’t question him anymore.”

Mikris lowered her head. “Kell-Breaker, honored Titan, Saint-14,” she rumbled with the utmost respect. “My beloved has spoken of you. I am… humbled, honored, to meet you. And… thank you, for saving my life.”

Saint shook his head. “Never in my lives would I have believed something like this, but… ah, you are the spark that drives my inspiration, indeed! Aurora-- you never told me that you had a child!”

Aurora scooped Tevis from their harness and let them nestle to her chest. “Tevis,” she said. 

Saint nodded. “Ah… after Larson? A good man. What does he think of…”

Aurora winced.

“Oh.” Saint slumped his shoulders. “I… am sorry. I… think he would be honored. Your little one… they are… so very cute.”

Aurora smiled now. “I tell them that a lot.”

Saint chuckled and tilted his head at Mikris. “I should have taken Osiris’ recommendation months ago,” he said dryly. “He suggested I help. You are Ambassador, yes? Of Light?”

“Eia,” Mikris said.

“Good, good! Osiris told me idea of helping. I was not sold, but… Aurora has been changing my perspective. And many others’, as well. This is… good, very good thing. Together we are strong. Even those that we distrusted... who have done things that could be unforgivable… can make amends.” Saint gestured beyond them to the smoldering wreckage. 

“A tyrant,” Saint continued, somber. “Rasputin murdered a lot of Guardians. Iron Lords. Friends, comrades… but now, look. With the faith of one Guardian, he has allied himself with humanity again. Ha, even Osiris was skeptical!”

Aurora stared out at the billowing smoke. “I almost didn’t,” she said softly. “The only reason I’ve been so willing to work with him since the Almighty… was Ana. And Mikris, too. I saw what he did. To the Iron Lords. When I destroyed the SIVA replication chamber in Site 6… it was awful. But…” She turned her gaze back to Tevis, half-asleep in her arms, purring softly. “He told me something that I… didn’t expect. And it’s kind of what you said, Saint. There’s hope for everyone.”

Saint patted her on the shoulder, surprisingly gentle for a Titan. “It is a lesson I thought I knew,” he said. “But you prove me wrong. And that is good. I am glad to learn and to grow.”

Aurora smiled up at the legendary Titan. “Thanks, Saint.”

She could tell he was beaming beneath his helmet. “It is I who should thank you, my friend! I am alive, and I am a better man than I was when I entered the Forest. I have my Light, and I have rekindled my companionship with Osiris. And you have saved the Light a thousand times over. My legend is but a candle to yours.”

Mikris chirped in agreement. “But she never did any of it for glory,” she said. “If she were one to be seeking fame and legend, she would not have spared and befriended a scared, desperate Marauder.”

Aurora shifted Tevis in her arms with a smile.

Saint laughed, sounding delighted. “That sounds like quite the story.”

“I could tell you,” Aurora said, half-teasing.

“Over tea?” Saint said hopefully.

Aurora hesitated, looking to her wife.

Saint straightened his shoulders. “And of course, with the great and noble Mikris at your side! I ensure your safety. Between me and Aurora, ha, no one would dare threaten you! And they’re all watching that thing burn, anyway.”

“Tea sounds… really, really nice,” Aurora admitted with a tired smile. “I thought my heart was going to explode.”

“Good that it did not,” Saint joked. “Come, come! Ah, Zavala would probably like a word, first, I would think. Will be okay; I will wait with Mikris and make sure she is safe. And then, you should take well-deserved break. Your little Tevis is ahead of you!”

Aurora kept her fingers knit with Mikris' as they walked with Saint-14 back to the City. The sounds of cheers and celebrations rang through the air. Tchaikovsky wove through the elation, an ode to the ballet lover of a super AI that had saved them.

The fear rose again, until she stepped into the courtyard to a roar of victory. Guardians swarmed the group of them, thanking her, offering their aid to the Ambassador, cooing over the sleep-dazed Tevis, asking Saint more questions than he could answer. 

A peal of thunder silenced the Guardians. They all scrambled back as Zavala lowered his hands, arc still crackling around his fingers. "Guardians," he said. "The City is safe. Thanks to Rasputin… and to Ana, to Aurora… we have once again defeated that which has sought to destroy us. However, the debris from the Almighty may have landed in the City."

Zavala gestured to a crumbled section of the courtyard, frighteningly close to Tess' shop. The woman was outside, speaking with a few Guardian, frazzled but unharmed. "I need you all to check in with civilians throughout the City."

The Guardians dispersed.

Zavala looked to Aurora now. To her shock, he smiled. "Hello, Guardian. Saint. Mikris."

Saint hovered protectively near Mikris. 

Aurora held her wife's hand tighter. "Commander."

"I must admit… for a few minutes… I did not believe he was actually going to do it."

Aurora blinked. "Huh? Who, Rasputin?"

Zavala nodded. "But here we are. Proven wrong. For years I distrusted and hated Rasputin. I saw him as a computer programmed to kill. But… it seems that humanity did something incredible. Rasputin cares."

Aurora nodded slowly. She wasn't sure where he was going with this. 

"And it was Hunters who taught me this." Zavala shook his head. "There is more to everything than meets the eye. I needed to learn that. To learn when to strike with the ferocity of a cornered snake, and when to wait patiently and see what I was blind to. To wait and watch for change. And for that, among countless other things, I thank you, Aurora."

Aurora shifted Tevis in her arms. "Uh, yeah. You're welcome?"

Zavala looked beside her to Mikris. He bowed his head to her, taking them all by surprise. "Mikris, Ambassador of the House of Light. It's my honor to finally meet the wife of our hero. And… to apologize. Humanity has been at war with your people for centuries. It’s still ongoing. But, like with Rasputin… we’ve both been in the wrong. Personally, I would extend our forces to ally with yours in a heartbeat. You have the support of the Iron Lords, of the Guardian who slew the Taken King, of every living former Vanguard… and some of the lost.”

“I hear a ‘but’ coming,” Aurora interrupted warily.

Zavala sighed and crossed his arms. “Politics,” he said flatly. “Ikora and I both agree that the House of Light could be very valuable allies. The more forces that we have against the Dark, the better we will all be. Both of us would love nothing more than to set aside the years of bloodshed and stand side by side with you, to hang your banners with our own along the walls. But people are afraid. Civilians and Guardians alike have witnessed enough to blind them to the truth, that the Eliksni are no different from us. Executor Hideo and Arach Jalaal have already expressed their protests when the first reports of Mithrax’s rise reached our desks. Lakshmi has kept her proverbial lips sealed on the War Cult’s opinion.”

Aurora frowned. “I could talk to them--”

Zavala shook his head. “If they haven’t listened to you yet, why would they now?”

“Bastards,” Aurora muttered, earning a muffled snicker from Saint. “Oh, Tevvy, don’t listen to that, baby.”

Tevis chirped sleepily and nestled into her. 

Zavala softened. “There has been a lot going on recently. But perhaps now that the Almighty is gone and we have a moment to breathe, Ikora and I can work on a way to bring up an alliance with the Consensus. For now, know that you have the Vanguard’s unofficial support.”

Aurora chuckled a bit weakly. “Last time that I had your unofficial support for something…”

“I know. I cannot regret my decision, however.”

“It was the right one,” Aurora said gently. “I was hurting. I still am. We all are. But you couldn’t risk thinking with your heart rather than your mind. You were right; if we’d gone to war… who knows what could’ve happened? You did what was best for the City, for humanity as a whole, for the Traveler.”

Zavala lowered his head in silent thanks.

“A worthy successor,” Saint said proudly. He stepped forward and slapped a hand to Zavala’s shoulder, barely jarring the Striker. “You have turned the City into a thriving, living thing, Zavala! You are more humble and noble than I ever was.”

Zavala gave him a rare smile.

“Now about that tea?” Saint said hopefully. “And, ah, the stories! I want to hear everything! Especially about your darling little Tevis!”

  
  
  
  
  


The moment that Rasputin died, Xenophon felt it.

They were elbow-deep in a Vex conflux, pulling at the threads of data as Halley watched. There was something getting the Vex worked up into a panic all across the system. 

A spear of the coldest, purest hatred stabbed into their skull.

Xenophon crumpled to the ground.

“Xen? Xen! Atlas?”

Atlas groaned and blinked his optics back on. He reached for his Ghost and hissed a curse. “Halley…”

She sighed in relief. “Oh, thank the Light. What happened? I couldn’t find anything wrong…”

He staggered upright with a grunt. “Ah, shit… shit! Ana, call Ana, right now.”

Halley spun her shell with worry. “I… can’t reach her. Atlas, what’s…?”

Atlas cursed again and leaned against the conflux for support. He tightened his jaw and jammed his hand into it again, this time carelessly grasping whatever he could reach. “It can’t be, that’s not right, they can’t be… he…”

“Atlas, what is it?” Halley buzzed in front of his face now.

He closed his hand around a string of information. Atlas closed his eyes and breathed in. Xenophon opened them. 

“Rasputin is dead. We just felt him die. The Vex have enacted all combat protocols across Mercury, Mars… Io.”

Halley wobbled in the air. Her voice was weak with fear. “Rasputin… is… dead? The Vex… killed him?”

“No. It’s… worse. It’s much, much worse.” Xenophon fixed their Ghost with a look more serious and grave than they had ever expressed in all their lives.

“The Darkness is here.”

**Author's Note:**

> come stop by my tumblr @lesbianeliksni


End file.
